


I Will Become the Angel of Death

by FenyxNyteRyder



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Wings, F/M, Gen, Inspired by Maximum Ride, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, government experiment, if i ever end up writing more for this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-11-02 21:47:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10953357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FenyxNyteRyder/pseuds/FenyxNyteRyder
Summary: The government has a secret: experiments that had been conducted on human embryos to create the first viable cognitive human hybrids.Children that ended up growing to have wings, living their whole lives caged and within a government laboratory, and forced to undergo the tests that the scientists put them under in a facility (known simply as "the School," located somewhere within the heart of the Rocky Mountains), to test the limits of these hybrids’ abilities, both physically and mentally.Of course...not everyone made it, the avians left in fear of who would be the next of their Flock to not return from the School's testings.It was unethical, surely, but the government would never let the public know. However, years later after the initial success of the Angel Experiment, the government's secret is under threat of being exposed: a group of the winged children managed to escape from containment.Where are they now? The government doesn’t know, but they will do everything within their power to get them back.





	I Will Become the Angel of Death

The Rocky Mountains. It was a nice, scenic place. Lots of forest area and pretty landscapes with views of the mountains; caves carved into and hidden by the land around it; waterfalls and rivers with lakes tucked away within the mountainous terrain that teemed with wildlife of all types. It was beautiful and peaceful in the rustic sense of the word. But even the prettiest places can have the darkest of secrets, and this expanse of wilderness was no exception.

 

Located high within a remote section of the Rockies was a place that was known by its inhabitants simply as the School. Or at least, that’s what the winged inhabitants called it, even though it was one of the farthest things from any type of school that there could be. It was more like a prison than anything else. A prison for beings that had never asked to be created how they were. But of course, the government and their scientists always did like to try to play God without anyone’s consent, didn’t they?

 

A series of experiments had been conducted under the umbrella name of what eventually came to be known as the Angel Experiment. Originally, scientists had been attempting to splice together strands of DNA from various species to create some of the first viable chimeras, in a sense. But after the initial success of the program resulted in the first avian-mammalian hybrid, the scientists decided to push their limits even further: they began to experiment on human embryos. Over five years of failed experiments eventually produced the first avian-human hybrids. Children who, in a different day and age, would have been respected and revered as angelic beings, but were treated as little more than caged animals branded with identifying numbers and subjected to further experimentation.

 

Tests of speed, strength, agility, dexterity, stamina, problem solving, mental capacity… All of them were commonplace within the facility, given by the assessors and scientists to gather data on the avians, pushing the being's physical and mental limits. After all, the avians were meant to become merely nameless tools for the government to use in future operations where their unique abilities would be deemed useful before being discarded whenever they broke. Disposable resources, in a way. Or at least...they _were_ before the first mutations started developing, and that was when the government began sticking their nose into a situation that they felt that they could exploit: turning the avians into living weapons with the powers that many of them soon began to obtain as a result of the high-stress environment and experimentations done.

 

Living in a place like the School was like being in a living Hell. It was a damned existence with the scientists akin to demons with no moral compass to guide them. Their morals, or in this case lack thereof, let them keep pushing the limits of what they should have been doing to mere _children_. And it was that disregard for life that caused so many of the young avians to be pushed past their breaking point, either physically or mentally, their bodies being tossed aside and discarded like used toys. It was usually worse for the newer groups of avians that were created, who ended up with a much higher mortality rate than the older avians, because of the scientist’s increased efforts to genetically alter and weaponize them. But that hardly meant that any of them were exempt.

 

Gabriel had just turned fourteen when it had happened. How he had even lasted as long as he had within the School was probably some sort of miracle, given that he was born over two months earlier than he was supposed to have been. He was barely over five feet tall with a nine foot wingspan, a head of dark shaggy curls, and amber eyes that seemed to match the colouration on the backs of his wings. White and caramel feathers flecked with black just like a barn owl. He was beautiful, even with being a bit more on the scrawny side, but what he lacked in physical prowess, he more than made up for with his mental capabilities, even if the boy had yet to show any signs of developing powers like many of the others were. He was smart, and if the situation had been different, he might’ve even been considered borderline genius. As it had been at the time, Gabriel had already been plotting in secret and making plans to help his flock escape from the School. To help everyone reach the freedom that they all so desired. He just had to wait for the perfect moment.

 

But that moment never came. _“Subject AGR-0813 and Subject AJF-0214 please exit the room and get ready for testing.”_ Gabriel always swore up and down that he hated that cold, monotonous, emotionless voice that always poured out of the speakers on the wall and into the holding room where all of them lived. Where all of his friends...all of his _family_ lived. Ana, Jack, Jesse… Jamison, Lucio, Angela... Genji, Hanzo… He always thought that it was some type of miracle how all of them had managed to make it this far together.

 

 _”Don’t worry. I’ll take care of Jamie and make sure that he stays out of trouble, and we’ll be back before you know it,”_ Gabriel murmured, his arms wrapping around Ana in a hug as he went up onto the tips of his toes to press a light kiss to her cheek. His gaze was warm and affectionate as he glanced up at her, his expression filled with determination. If Gabriel had been brave enough or confident enough, he might have even been able to admit that he loved her; loved how she was smart and fierce and protective and caring; how the little kisses that she pressed against his forehead or cheek always made his heart feel funny in his chest and his face feel as though it were on fire. But instead, all he did was grin widely and nudge Ana’s shoulder. _“Take care of the others while we’re gone, and try not to miss me too much, yeah? Whenever Jack comes back, tell him I’ll kick his ass whenever Jamie and I get back from our mission,”_ he teased, even though his heart felt like it was in his throat.

 

Blinking when the eleven year old came slinking over to him, Gabriel grinned and reached out, rustling Jesse’s hair and pressing a small kiss to his forehead. Jesse was a good kid. One of the youngest ones that had managed to survive with the rest of them. He always seemed to prefer clinging to Gabriel over the others, but Gabe didn’t mind. He preferred it in a way. Helping being able to keep the kid from being too stubborn for his own good. Jesse probably would’ve been dead already if Gabe hadn’t decided to intervene and take the kid under his wing; pun intended. _”Don’t worry, I’ll give ‘em Hell for ya, Jess. Try not to give Ana and Jack too hard of a time while I’m gone.”_ Reaching into one of his wings, Gabriel gently pulled out one of his silky white and caramel feathers and placed it into Jesse’s hands. _”Here. A good luck charm, for whenever you go on your own next big mission. Take good care of it.”_ Gabriel had never failed a mission or test before, so why should he worry that something was going to go wrong now?

 

Walking out of the holding room with Jamison in tow, the pair were dragged off by the assessors and loaded onto one of the transport vehicles that took them down the mountain to a remote portion, secluded away from any human towns that may have ended up being nearby. It seemed like just another test like any other ones that they had been given in the past. But somehow… Somewhere along the lines during their mission, something got messed up. It had all happened so fast that it all had seemed like a blur in Gabriel’s mind. He was almost certain that there was some type of explosion on the mountain above them and a rockslide that followed after that, but all that he could remember was...darkness and pain.

 

It was hours later that the assessors who had been sent on the test with Jamison and Gabriel had managed to be brought back to the School for medical treatment themselves, one perishing from the accident while several others remained missing as search teams were sent to comb the area in an attempt to locate not only the missing researchers, but also the two avians who seemed to have simply vanished. The search for Jamison and Gabriel ended up proving futile, however, with no traces of the others’ bodies being found, save for a few handfuls of broken or singed feathers.

 

It was later that night at the School that the announcement came over the intercom. _”In light of the day’s previous events, it is with much regret that we must inform that Subject AGR-0813 and Subject AJF-0214 have perished in the accident that has claimed the lives of three of our esteemed colleagues as well. A vigil will be held later this week for the lives lost in this tragedy. Thank you.”_ Naturally, there were questions, but all that the scientists would tell the grieving avians was that Gabriel and Jamison were gone. Any attempts for them to see the bodies of their friends were shot down with a statement that their bodies had been ‘too badly damaged to be viewed.’ Of course, naturally, that was a lie, because there _were_ no bodies recovered for the pair, but the government wasn’t about to admit their failure.

 

When Gabriel had first awoke after the accident, all he could tell was that he was wrapped in darkness. His first thought was that he was blind, but then he felt it. A nearly suffocating darkness that pressed against his skin from all sides and made him feel _trapped_ , which only made the feeling worse until he managed to even his breathing and _think_ , and soon the shadows wrapped around him like a cocoon seemed to fade and drip back to the ground until he was sitting alone in the middle of the forest, his head pounding and body aching. Or at least his first assumption was that he was alone, until he heard the noises of pain nearby, slowly searching until he found the body. Gabe had to choke back the noise of surprise when he noticed the wing and arm that was missing off of the...person. Just who exactly was he? Was he supposed to know him since they both had wings? There was a sharp nagging feeling at the back of his mind, but he just...couldn’t remember. Every time that he tried to think about it, the thoughts and memories slipped past him like a shadow across water.

 

Still, even without knowing who he was, Gabriel helped heal Jamison the best that he could, wrapping the wounds with the remainder of the torn shirt he had been wearing, though it ended up being the _shadows_ that sutured the amputated appendages and kept the other from bleeding to death. At first Gabriel was worried about moving the injured avian who still seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness, but his mind was soon decided for him whenever he heard the sounds of people stumbling through the underbrush in the dark, his immediate thoughts being that it was those people that had ended up hurting the broken child in his arms. That was when he first made the decision to run away, taking the blonde as far away as he could with both of them injured. Maybe it was foolish, because they were in the middle of nowhere, with nothing around that he could see that could end up helping them. The only thing that he could do was carry the other avian to somewhere safe for him to hide out and rest while Gabriel went to go find food somewhere.

 

He was a coward though. The moment that Jamison had ended up waking up, Gabriel hid himself away, his body morphing into a shadow that pressed against one of the nearby trees. He waited, simply watching over the other to make sure that he would survive and that he wouldn’t end up getting hurt even worse. After all, Gabriel had tasked himself with watching over the injured avian, and he would be damned if he just up and abandoned the other, even if he was too scared to actually show himself to Jamison. Though perhaps he wasn’t necessarily scared, but rather...wary and cautious when he couldn’t remember anything. He wasn’t even sure what his own name was. The only hint of his past being a code that was inked into the skin of his right forearm: _AGR-0813_.

 

So that was how his days passed. Days, stretching into weeks, stretching into months. Jamie was his companion’s name. Or at least, that’s what Gabriel had been told during one of Jamison’s long-winded one-sided speeches during some of the nights that Gabe had decided to sit down in his shadow form to just watch and listen, cherishing those little conversations. Those were the times when he wasn’t busy building his own “nest” off in the mountains; or sneaking into one of the human towns (a fairly easy feat once he had managed to learn how to dissolve his wings into shadows to hide them from the humans) and stealing an assortment of food, clothing, and miscellaneous materials; or simply patrolling the area around wherever Jamie had decided to wander, just to make sure that there weren’t any _humans_ around that would be able to hurt him. And if there were…? Well it wasn’t that hard to get rid of them, one way or another.

 

Maybe Jamie hadn’t been so off-beat about naming him Reaper after all. Gabriel had certainly ended up starting to think that the “R” on his arm was meant to stand for Reaper, at the very least. He still just couldn’t tell what the other letters and numbers were supposed to mean. He tried not to think about it though. All that he ended up focusing on was keeping Jamie safe and killing any of the scientists that wandered too close to them. Reaper knew that there was some place in the mountains where they were coming from, that much he could deduce from what Jamie had told him and from his own flickering memories that seemed to bubble up in his subconscious at times whenever he slept. He tried not to dwell too much on it though. Not when he had more important issues on his hands. Something more important in the here and now to keep him grounded and focused.

 

Six years eventually passed with Jamie remaining under the watchful eye of Reaper. And during that time, Reaper had still yet to make himself known to the other as anything more than a shadow. He wasn’t quite sure why he didn’t end up showing himself, but perhaps it was simply because he had grown accustomed to the shadows; he found them soothing. Or maybe it was a subconscious fear that Jamie would actually know who he was and shatter the carefully constructed mental envisionment of the world that Reaper had created for himself. At any rate, there was still that sense of fulfillment he gained over the years as he watched Jamie grow. Almost like that sense of pride that a parent gets from their child.

 

Six years of living in the wilds had certainly changed the both of them. Though perhaps that should’ve been a given considering just how young they both had been whenever they had been stranded. Reaper certainly looked nothing like he had during that first year. Now twenty years old, he stood an inch over six feet tall with broad shoulders and toned physique and an impressive sixteen foot wingspan. His unruly head of curls had ended up becoming a much more tameable undercut, black piercings decorating his ears and a sharp jawline lined with facial hair. Compared to how he looked whenever he was only fourteen years old, it would’ve been difficult for anyone to recognize him if they didn’t see the colouration of his wings and the subject number from government experiment he had been a part of so long ago.

 

It wasn’t like anyone would have been considering looking for him anyways, at any rate. Not when everyone from his past assumed that he was dead. Sometimes Reaper imagined that he was dead; that he had actually died back in the accident that had caused Jamie to lose his arm and wing; that he had ended up coming back as a mere _shadow_ of his former self. But that always seemed absurd, especially when he couldn’t even remember well what had happened during the time six years prior. Maybe no one even missed him, or he didn’t have a family to begin with. An orphan perhaps. Every time that he went into a human town, there was never any type of missing persons article or poster whenever he searched, so it always felt that way. In a sense, it was almost like he had never existed in the first place.

 

Of course, no one else that he had met had _wings_. Unless they were capable of hiding them away like Reaper was able to with his powers. Ah, yes, his _powers_. He still wasn’t sure how he had gotten them, but it felt...natural to control the darkness around him. Almost like the shadows were a second skin. After stumbling across some old comics in a bookstore once, part of him wondered if perhaps he was supposed to be like one of the superheroes in those stores. The ones with the superpowers that tried to right all of the wrongdoings in the world and help save people. It was an ideal that he liked to look up to. Of being one of the world’s defenders of social justice.

 

Though maybe “Reaper” wasn’t the best name or call-sign for a superhero. Unless it was derived in the sense that he was the reaper of the souls of the unjust, and he could take on the whole persona of an angel of death, like how he had once read about how there was an Archangel of Death named Azrael. He certainly would have fit the part of it, at least, with the way he was able to cloak his wings in shadows so that the feathers of his wings appeared to be black. It helped add to the aesthetic of outfit that he liked to wear whenever he flew around as his “hero” persona on the look-out for any trouble that might be brewing. Black elbow-length fingerless gloves, black knee-high combat boots, black hooded cape, and an ivory owl mask. He looked every inch like the shadowy angel of death that he was trying to portray himself as.

  
A shadow in the night. That’s what Reaper was. Flying above the world in the darkness, he felt at home, stretching out his black wings and feeling the wind gliding through his feathers as he soared soundlessly through the sky. The darkness that he cloaked himself in always did a good job of concealing his presence, allowing him to blend in with the dark expanse of night sky while searching the landscape below him for anything that seemed to be out of the ordinary to his night vision. The world always seemed so small and isolated from way up high, but he supposed he had to thank his enhanced eyesight, the sight of a _nocturnal raptor_ , for being able to see as well as he could. Soon a wide grin stretched at his lips as he caught sight of something from the corner of his eye. Looks like he just found his next target.

**Author's Note:**

> I may or may not end up writing more for this, depending on the feedback that I get from people. But for now it's going to end up as a stand-alone little one-shot.


End file.
